A/N: I know I've been slow responding to comments and I'm SO sorry. I work an extra job this time of year and it's been CRAZY busy. I'm doing my damnedest to keep updating on schedule, but replying to comments is taking a little longer than usual. But I promise I will respond to everyone! You're all awesome!
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Origins: Dís
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From the first moment her fingers touched a keyboard, Dís breathed binary. With one look at a strand of code she could break apart each component and reassemble it to be better, faster, stronger. Each 1 and 0 on the screen became a tool to create, a near infinite string of possibilities. Pentiums, data packets, and executions were written into the very fiber of her being, things she understood from their base functions up.
She married her high school sweetheart, Grár, the only man who accepted her need to be more, even if he never understood it. She measured their love in terabytes and RAM, and gave him every part of her that wasn't taken up by algorithms and microcode. He would lose her for days at a time to new projects, only to have her return with grease on her fingers and numbers in her eyes. It was as if they spoke different languages, and Grár often joked that the only way her could ever get her full attention would be if he were part machine.
Dís went straight to college -MIT on a full ride scholarship- with Grár trailing after her. In two years she had a bachelors degree, in four a masters. Then the babies came- Fíli first, blond and bright like his father, but with her solemn focus. Schooling fell by the wayside and they moved back home, to the Company's first base in the apartments of Ered Luin, to be closer to her family.
But Dís chafed at domestic life, her mind still racing with thoughts of computer code and schematics and technology. She devoted herself to upgrading their security systems and began building tech for the Company, loosing herself in the circuits and coding. She worked on their power grid and computer servers until the swell of her belly prevented her from crawling beneath the desks.
Kíli was a month from being born when Grár left the apartments in Ered Luin to go out for groceries. Dís was caught up in her work and offered him an absent wave as he left, not even bothering to look up as he told her goodbye.
Just like a computer system could fall to catastrophic failure, there were sometimes casualties when villains attacked the city. Grár was caught in the crossfire when the Riders of Rohan battled Great Goblin's minions, sustaining heavy internal hemorrhaging from a blow to the chest. His eyes stayed closed, but he clung to life, hooked to the beeping machines that breathed air into his battered lungs. Dís never left his side, clinging to his hand and offering silent promises to him and their unborn child if only he'd wake. After three days Grár's body gave up, and Dís was left alone with a flat-line drone of the life support machine.
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A/N: Next chapter- the Company gets some downtime, hints are given, and Dwalin faces off against Dori.
CONTEST! It was suggested that I should do a contest, so here we go. Everyone in the Company has powers that I stole from various Marvel characters. The first person to comment with each character and who I modeled their powers after will get a drabble of their choice about something in this 'verse. Good luck!